Lessons from Ghana's first oil journey

Lessons from Ghana's first oil journey

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Storm hangs over Uganda’s biggest wolfram mine

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By Stephen Nuwagira   Joseph Ntware, a resident of Kirwa village in Nyarubuye sub-county, Kisoro district, looks desolately as his five children play around the compound dressed in tatters. Although the children are of school-going age, none of them is in school. He says all the schools in the neighbourhood charge fees that he cannot afford. Ntware, a former miner at the Kirwa wolfram mine, says since activity at the mine was hit by ownership wrangles in 2002, he has not got a permanent job to enable him provide for his family. Like most of his former colleagues, he is now a peasant farmer, but can barely get enough food for his family.   The Kirwa mine, located about 8km from Kisoro town, is said to be the largest with wolfram deposits in the country. It covers about seven square kilometres, with a yet-to-be verified volume and is economically viable, according to the Kisoro natural resources officer, Vincent Mudanga.  Wolfram is a very precious metal today...
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Rwanda to start commercial bio-diesel production as government gazettes enabling law

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I t is said that perseverance and patience are virtues that only those who know clearly the road they must take possess. At last the country’s dream of becoming a net bio-diesel producer could become reality after the Government published the law establishing an agency that will help deliver this vision. According to the country’s lead industrial research organisation, Rwanda Institute of Science and Technology (IRST) director general, Dr. Jean Baptiste Nduwayezu, the law to transform the institute into the National Industrial Research and Development Agency (NIRDA) was published in the official gazette on July 29. It replaces the IRST law of 1989. Nduwayezu lauded the development, saying the woes IRST has been facing could soon be history as NIRDA will be an independent agency mandated with developing and marketing its innovations. The research institute has majorly been spearheading the bio-diesel processing and marketing project at Kigali Bio-fuel Research Centre in Mulindi, Gasab...
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When coffee and tourism blended

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Tourists (above) hike along the Huye Coffee tour experience trail on March 5, 2016.  Photo Credit/Stephen Nuwagira Need is the mother of all innovations, goes an old adage. It is also true that solutions to most of our problems are always around us. So, when a Huye-based farmer sought sustainable ways to market local coffee and promote Rwanda’s unique tourism attractions to the outside world, the resources at hand came in handy.  The farmer created a ‘coffee experience tour’ hiking trail across the Huye Mountain Coffee plantation and the historically important Nyirankoko hill just above the plantation. Where does the coffee you drink at Ban Café or any other coffee houses come from? Or why would one visit a coffee or tea farm, or a cattle ranch? These questions are expounded on during the hike and, by the time one descends the hill, they are ready to roast and brew their first coffee as the hike takes you through all the stages of the coffee production process, right ...
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